Notably, Cook discusses the new fingerprint scanner Touch ID system in the iPhone 5s. Cook seems to enjoy that users can unlock their iPhone with the touch of a fingerprint, but he seems to imply that purchases with Touch ID are the bigger picture. He notes that Touch ID can now be used to download items from Apple’s online media stores, but it seems that purchases will become even more important as the technology continues to develop:

You know, the first time that you buy something with your finger, it’s pretty profound. It’s one thing to use it as security. This is really cool, and a lot of people will love it, because they open their phone multiple times a day. But the buying is even a more startling experience, in a way.

Speaking of the features in the new iPhone, Cook goes onto to share some notable details behind the development and integration of the new iOS and the iPhone 5c:

And somebody thought through the wallpaper. Wouldn’t it be great if it was like you were putting on your shirt and your pants, and they actually matched or made some sense with each other? You know? Technology companies don’t think of those things, or, usual technology companies don’t think of those things. Nobody worries about buttons and finishes. Nobody really worries about the experience, and we do. We’re really proud that we do.

Cook adds that the iPhone 5c was not about increasing marketing share or hitting certain lower price points, but it was about giving consumers options, creating a differentiation factor from the iPhone 5c, and expanding the iPhone’s reach.

In addition to Touch ID and the design of the iPhones, Cook discusses Apple’s iOS Duopoly with Google’s Android mobile device operating system. The Apple CEO makes it clear that the mobile phone OS market is a competition between Apple and Google.

For smartphones, I think it’s even more a two-operating-system world today than it was before. Maybe that changes. Maybe it doesn’t, but that is the state of things today. I think that Android is more fragmented than ever and, as a result, when you look at things like customer satisfaction and usage, you see the gap between Android and iOS being huge.

Cook also discusses Android fragmentation:

Yes. And it’s just not growing in the—it’s not like a baby that becomes an infant. It’s not like that. It’s an exponential. It’s a compounding problem. And think about all these people that they’re leaving behind from a customer point of view. People do hold on. Most people hold on to their phones a couple of years. They enter a contract and honor that contract and then upgrade after that two-year period. So in essence, by the time they buy the phone, many of these operating systems are old. They’re not the latest ones by the time people buy. And so by the time they exit, they’re using an operating system that’s three or four years old. That would be like me right now having in my pocket iOS 3. I can’t imagine it.

Besides the interview, Bloomberg has also published an inside-look at the thought process behind the magazine’s cover and some photo shoot outtakes:

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I gotta say, you sound like the old dog who can’t learn new tricks, or is stuck in the 80’s.

The overall opinion of iOS 7 is remarkably better than iOS 6 by a wide margin. I too was a bit jarred initially when I put it on my devices, but after the first few days, that feeling subsided, and when I gave it a fair chance and started exploring the new features and workflows, I completely fell in love with it. I couldn’t see myself ever going back to iOS 6!

I don’t think that’s necessarily true. The cheapest/oldest iPhone Apple still supports is the iPhone 4, which means all the supported iPhones have a high-density pixel retina display, required by smooth lines and thinner fonts used in iOS7. Maybe they even had the idea earlier, but they surely needed a full line of retina display devices to implement it.

I am really liking the feeling of the operating system having grown up in many ways. But don’t like certain elements: many of the colors are jarring, the font weight is far too thin for me to easily read, and there are some oddities about it, but overall it’s a great evolution. Oh, one thing that’s nifty the first time and now seems jarring: I hate the icons flying past me (as if from beyond) … It seems like a nifty thing to do once, and now I wish it would just fade in to the desktop and not have flying icons.

It’s funny that Cook continues to talk about Android, and yet iOS is looking more and more like Android with every update. The guy siting next to me this past Saturday at bowling had his iPad with iOS7 on it, and I looked over to see the lock screen and laughed. He asked what I was laughing at, and I turned my Nexus 4 on, as we as my Nexus 7, and he saw it right away. Down to the font!

With almost 70% of the market and constant innovation, I am not worried. There are only 2 things Apple excels at in the mobile market, the cameras on their devices and the amount of profit they make on each device.

If I used iOS products, I would be pissed that they created an inferior product and passed it onto me for the same money (iPhone 5c).

And have you noticed that when they revealed the new phones, their stock dropped? Even investors are tired of the same old. You can be as snarky with me as you like, but even the banks are downgrading Apple, and that goes to my point that Tim Cook and company know the truth, and that is Android is so far ahead, they can never catch up.

Oh by 70% you mean 31% of them using a 2 years old Android (Gingerbread), 22% of them using a year old Android (ICM) and only 44% of them are using the latest Android (JellyBean)?
Don’t forget most people in third-world countries buy Android phones because they are cheap.
Try comparing high end Android phones (Galaxy S Series, Note Series) and the gap isn’t that big.